Since role-play is a valuable technique for L2 learning, knowing how to successfully use it becomes important. Ladousse (1987) firstly proposed eleven main factors in a successful role-play, and other scholars also suggested six factors from different perspectives: considerations of students’ needs and levels, heterogeneous grouping, authentic topics and purposeful tasks, linguistic and factual preparation,
teachers’ roles as facilitators and spectators, and appropriate error correction.
2.5.1 Eleven factors in Ladousse’s study (1987)
Ladousse (1987) presented eleven factors in a successful use of role-play, including level (i.e. considering students’ level), time (i.e. providing students enough time to carry out the task), aim (i.e. deciding on the objective of the activity), language (i.e. providing the language structures or functions students need), organization (i.e. deciding on the use of pair or group work), preparation (i.e.
selections of role-play situations, pre-role-play preparation, and role assignments), warm-up (i.e. catching students’ attention and arousing their learning motivation), procedure (i.e. a step-by-step guide to activity implementation), follow-up, remarks (i.e. marking out difficulties), and variation (i.e. marking out possible applications on students of different language proficiency levels or different types of classes).
At the first stage of designing role-play activities, teachers need to take into consideration students’ level and the amount of time for them to read assigned materials. Next, teachers have to make a clear decision on the broader objective of the activity (e.g. Is it used to break the ice or develop skills in cooperation?). The language that students will need to learn should be also determined beforehand, such as language structures or functions. After deciding on aim and language, teachers can choose to use either pair work or group work in the activities, and this refers to organization.
Then, at the stage of starting role-play activities, necessary preparation should be firstly given to students. Then teachers utilize warm-up activities to create a non-threatening atmosphere and alleviate students’ anxiety. Procedures with successive steps should be also carefully planned for both teachers and learners to follow.
Finally, a successful role-play is suggested to have follow-up, either for the
purpose of discussion, remedial work or homework. At the end of role-play, difficulties that arise during the process, which refers to remarks, should be marked out. A role-play activity with some variations, such as applications for classes at different levels, can be also considered successful.
2.5.2 Six more factors compiled from other studies
In order to make a successful role-play, teachers are suggested to consider students’ needs and levels (Sturtridge, 1981; Maxwell, 1987; Liu & Ding, 2009), heterogeneously group students (Raz, 1985), select authentic topics and purposeful tasks (Clark, 1980; Sturtridge, 1981; Liu & Ding, 2009), provide students sufficient preparation for role-play (Clark, 1980; Lee, 1991; Kaur, 2002; Clapper, 2010), play the parts as facilitators and spectators (Littlewoods, 1981; Liu & Ding, 2009), and correct students’ errors in an unobtrusive way (Horwitz, 1985; Liu & Ding, 2009 ).
Consideration of students’ needs and levels
Sturtridge (1981) highlighted that teachers must take students’ needs into consideration when selecting the situations and roles of a role-play. Liu and Ding (2009) also indicated that learners may need additional support of having relevant language use on the blackboard. In addition, the learners with high proficiency may need time to prepare for their roles while those with low proficiency may feel safe in structured activities (Maxwell, 1997).
Heterogeneous grouping
Raz (1985) found that role-play can work best if teachers pair up low achievers with high achievers, especially when high achievers have patience and willingness to help others. Likewise, Lee (1991) also asserted that a role-play activity with heterogeneous grouping can stimulate peer helping and peer learning. More fluent learners usually take dominant roles whereas less fluent ones can get support from them and take charge of simple language production.
Authentic topics and purposeful tasks
Researchers commonly agree that the more relevant the topic of role-play is to students’ life experience, the more meaningful the use of the language will become (Sturtridge, 1981; Liu & Ding, 2009). In other words, as long as role-play is close to real-life, students may easily feel interested and actively learn from it. Here are some possible role-play situations suggested by Clark (1980): asking to borrow something, a visit to a doctor or dentist, helping an accident victim or sick person, and turning down an invitation gracefully.
Linguistic and factual preparation
Before successful role-play activities, learners should be provided with both linguistic and factual preparation, so that they may feel confident in the practice. In terms of linguistic preparation, teachers need to give word banks and useful expressions to learners, especially those with low language proficiency (Lee, 1991).
In terms of factual preparation, teachers ought to carefully explain the tasks with clear examples or good modeling. In this way, they will clearly know what teachers expect them to do (Kaur, 2002). In addition, teachers should be alert to not overwhelm students with too many new words or language structures (Clark, 1980).
In short, a well-designed role-play is considered short and sweet, with each group’s show time lasting for five to eight minutes (Clapper, 2010).
Teachers’ roles as facilitators and spectators
One of the factors for role-play success is teachers’ roles as facilitators and spectators. As facilitators, teachers should create a non-threatening learning atmosphere by briefly talking to the point during the first class and offering assistance for learners when necessary (Littlewoods, 1981; Liu & Ding, 2009). In other words, teachers serve as a walking dictionary or a source of guidance to feed the language that students need. Moreover, teachers should be good spectators to watch the group
practices, note down their strength as well as weakness, and provide comments for improvements (Littlewoods, 1981; Liu & Ding, 2009).
Appropriate error correction
One crucial factor for role-play success is to correct errors in an appropriate manner. Liu and Ding (2009) proposed two ways to correct errors. One is self-correction, which means recording the role-play of each group, listening to it or watching it again, and guiding the group to the reflection on what errors are and how they can be corrected. The other is called peer-correction, which involves the class in the work of examining language errors. Teachers should cautiously handle this situation so that it can be a positive and beneficial experience for all participants.
Besides, during the process of error correction, students are encouraged to ask about vocabulary or expressions which are difficult for them (Horwitz, 1985).